One of the first prize selections from last year’s Roy Wood Peach Festival Art Show in the lobby of Peoples Southern Bank. (File Photo)

The Peach Festival is coming fast, which means that preparation has also begun for the 32nd Annual Roy Wood Peach Festival Art Show.

The show will once again be displayed in the lobby of Peoples Southern Bank along Seventh St. in downtown Clanton.

According to show organizer Scarlett Teel, during the early years the art show was held in the entrance of the Chilton County High School auditorium during the Peach Pageant.

“People were a little more interested in the contest then they were the art,” Teel said.

Shortly after, the show was moved its current location inside the bank, and has spent the majority of its 32 years there.

“It’s an asset to the Peach Festival,” Teel said.

The show is named in memory of Roy Wood, who worked as a cashier with the bank for more than 30 years and also served on the Clanton City Council.

“He was well-liked by the customers and the community,” Peoples Southern Bank President Richard Moore said.

Wood was an art student of Teel’s for many years when she taught children and adults in a studio off U.S. Highway 31 North.

“He liked realistic art and painting scenes from around the county, such as peaches and old churches,” Teel said. “It’s very fitting for his name to be the one on the show.”

According to Moore, people are brought in from out of town to serve as judges during the show.

Local artwork from the junior and senior divisions will be represented, with the junior division comprised of any age up to high school seniors.

About 50 participants are expected between both divisions, Moore said.

Prizes will be handed out to each division with $100 going to first place, $75 to second, $50 to third and $25 to honorable mention.

All artwork will be received on June 15 from noon to 2 p.m. Participants are advised to bring paintings in the parking lot entrance.

Each work of art must be an original piece and must be framed with wire ready to hang.